A NATION AT WAR: IN THE FIELD | 101st AIRBORNE; A Bridgehead, and a Thirsty Welcome

By JIM DWYER

Published: April 3, 2003

NAJAF, Iraq, April 2—
In the giddy spirit of the day, nothing could quite top the wish list bellowed out by one man in the throng of people greeting American troops from the 101st Airborne Division who marched into town today.

What, the man was asked, did he hope to see now that the Baath Party had been driven from power in his town? What would the Americans bring?

''Democracy,'' the man said, his voice rising to lift each word to greater prominence. ''Whiskey. And sexy!''

Around him, the crowd roared its approval. Yet when the first round of welcomes to American soldiers and journalists were exuberantly, even affectionately completed, the people in the crowd had a more urgent request than liquor. They wanted water.

There has been none in this town for four days. Again and again, people pointed to the sky, tilted their heads back and pointed to their open mouths. A boy, age about 6 or 7, approached an American reporter and said the two words that were uttered over and over: ''America. Good.'' Then he kissed the reporter on the cheek, shook his hand and pointed to the sky, pleading for water.

Neither soldiers nor reporters had water for the town. The infrastructure has been brought down by nearly a week of battles in and around the town. For now, there is no short-term prospect for any relief, although military officials note that the town's landing strip could easily accommodate C-130 cargo planes.

This is the first town of any major size that the Americans have fought for and taken control of, but Najaf itself is of little importance to the military mission here. The troops need it to secure supply lines for the invasion of Baghdad. The paramilitary fighters of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party have been driven out, and arms caches have been destroyed.

The Shiite Muslim population of the town, long oppressed by the Baath, poured out of their homes on Tuesday with tips about weapons hiding places and training grounds. The Shiites seemed mildly to wildly grateful for the presence of the Americans, but were curious about what it will amount to. So, too, was one American military official, who said he wondered how he would know when he was done in Najaf.

Kase, an Iraqi civil engineer who would not give his last name, was part of a crowd that gathered outside a former ammunition center for the Baath Party. ''Will you stay?'' he asked.

Most of the troops from the 101st will not be staying, at least after the last of the paramilitary fighters has been routed or driven into hiding. The American soldiers will be moving north to assist in seizing territory around Baghdad, and perhaps going into the capital. A contingent of Special Forces troops will remain here, but to support some other civil authority, not to run the town.

The military has sought meetings with a major Shiite leader here, Ayatollah Ali Alsestani, who has so far declined to speak with American officials. The cleric is said to have been kept under house arrest for a decade or more, but was freed within the last day after his guards fled as the American cordon around the city drew tighter.

Lt. Col. Chris Hughes said he had been talking with an emissary of the imam about governing arrangements for the city now that the Baath Party had been routed. The cleric sent a message to Colonel Hughes, saying he would give his response on Thursday.

In the view of Kadhim al-Waeli, an expatriate who returned to the city today with the American troops, the ayatollah's unwillingness to publicly embrace the invading force reflects a broader uncertainty about American steadfastness.

After the first Persian Gulf war in 1991, the United States government encouraged Shiites in the south of Iraq to rebel against President Hussein but provided little tangible support. When the Iraqi government harshly repressed the uprisings, Mr. Waeli, who had been part of the insurgency, fled to Saudi Arabia.

Mr. Waeli returned today as a member of the Free Iraqi Forces, a group of Iraqi natives attached to a civil affairs unit of the Army. He said the local Shiites were concerned that the Americans would not secure the peace and wanted to know, ''Are you going to be here or are you going to leave us?''

For now, the American troops are here: they will continue to hunt down paramilitary fighters in and around the town. Eight Iraqis were killed on Tuesday by American and British troops.

The roads leading out of the city had been freshly seeded with land mines, apparently by paramilitary fighters anticipating the American arrival, and a team of engineers -- known as sappers in the Army -- moved methodically through the mines.

Just before the sun went down, the engineers cleared the third of such fields, detonating them with C-4 explosive. The troops had discovered a factory where such land mines were made, but the ones exploded at the end of the day on Tuesday had been made in Italy, said Lt. Col. Duke Deluca.

''Europeans are antiwar, but they are pro-commerce,'' Colonel Deluca said.